Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling, insists UCI president

Lance Armstrong has been told he has no place in cycling by the International Cycling Union (UCI), who have confirmed they have stripped him of his seven tour titles and ratified his lifetime ban.

Stripped and outcast: Lance Armstrong (Picture: AP)

The UCI accepted the findings of the United States Anti-Doping Agency’s (USADA) investigation, which alleged Armstrong and his US Postal Service team had been guilty of ‘the most sophisticated, professionalised and successful doping programme that sport has ever seen’.

The Texan, 41, has been stripped of all results since August 1, 1998 and banned for life.

At a media conference in Geneva, UCI president Pat McQuaid said: ‘(The UCI) will not appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and it will recognise the sanctions that USADA has imposed.

‘The UCI will ban Lance Armstrong from cycling and the UCI will strip him of his seven Tour de France titles.

‘Lance Armstrong has no place in cycling.

‘When I took over [as president] in 2005 I made the fight against doping my priority. I acknowledged cycling had culture of doping.

‘Cycling has come a long way. I have no intention as resigning as president of the UCI.

‘We could only work with the system that was in place at the time.

‘I am sorry that we couldn’t catch every damn one of them red handed and throw them out of the sport at the time.’

The six-month suspensions of eleven former team-mates of Armstrong, who testified against him to USADA, were also ratified by the UCI, which thanked the riders for giving evidence against him.